Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to electrical connector assemblies, and, more particularly, to electrical connector assemblies having configurable wafers.
Right angle connectors have been used to connect printed circuit boards. The right angled connectors may include a plurality of receiving terminals oriented at a right angle to a number of a plurality of pins. One common implementation of such connectors is to join daughter cards with a backplane in a data transmission system. In conventional systems, connectors have been proposed that are able to support bi-directional data streams arranged point-to-multipoint for channel access configuration. The conventional bi-directional data streams may convey signals in opposite directions over each individual trace through the connector.
Existing channel access bus architectures typically utilize a single driver or transmitter, such as arranged on one daughter card that transmits a signal along a trace along the backplane. The trace on the backplane may be tapped at multiple locations to feed a plurality of receivers on an equal plurality of daughter cards. Hence, a single transceiver (transmitter/receiver) on a first daughter card may communicate along a common trace over the backplane to a plurality of transceivers arranged on separate other daughter cards.
However, conventional configurations have experienced insufficient signal integrity at high data rates. As the data rate increases, the high frequency components of the signal experience more loss due to more reflection and dielectric loss within the backplane and connector assemblies interconnecting the daughter cards. Signal degradation may increase as the number of daughter cards increases. The energy conveyed along the backplane divides at each point where a daughter card connector taps into a trace on the backplane.
In order to condition or otherwise boost signals conveyed through traces, one or more active devices may be used. Typically, an active device may be disposed directly on a daughter card or backplane. Depending on the application, the active device needs to be configured to effectively equalize the signals conveyed through the traces. In general, the available space on the daughter card and backplane is limited, however.